The Google Plus app won't work in Android 2.3 any longer. Use Firefox.

This came up as an issue for me recently, and I wrote this as a reply to another person who wasn't able to access Google+ content in their app anymore. This post is meant for seasoned Android users.

Since mid-to-late February 2017, the Google Plus app wouldn't work any longer in my phone, which runs on Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread, and can't be upgraded to a newer Android version.

While the Google Plus website still works on the mobile web, the stock web browser ("Internet") is far too outdated to visit Google+ and other modern sites.

The solution — or workaround, if you will — is to download and install Firefox for Android. Try from Google Play Store first. If that doesn't work, you need to download Firefox from the Mozilla archive.

• Temporarily switch on third-party app installs.
• Below is a breakdown of which Firefox version is compatible with which combination of ARM CPU architecture and older Android version. Each Firefox version links to the appropriate Mozilla archive directory.

ARMv6 devices —

Android 2.2, 2.3: Firefox 31.3.0esr

ARMv7 devices —

Android 2.2: Firefox 31.0

Android 2.3 (on a slower phone, <1 GHz): 44.0.2

Android 2.3: Firefox 47.0

Then from the Mozilla Add-ons website, install an adblocker to block ads. I suggest uBlock Origin, because it has built-in support for anti-adblock lists; this needs to be turned on separately, but works.